A summer favourite - PASTA NORMA

Rumor has it this Sicilian dish was named for Bellini's opera Norma, first performed in 1831, which tells the story of a tragic love affair between a Roman official and a Druid high priestess. It is to die for!

I only make it when I find eggplant at the farmers' market, thanks to Diane and Rick at the Goodlife Greenhouse.

1-2 eggplants
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
4-5 plum tomatoes
6 basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
salt and pepper
ricotta or parmesan cheese
pasta of your choice

Slice the eggplant in rounds. Coat each side with olive oil, place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and broil on the second level of the oven until soft and brown, turning to cook both sides.

Sauté garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil. Stir in chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes are softened, then stir in chopped basil. Simmer for 15 min. In the meantime, cook the pasta.

Cut each slice of eggplant into quareters. Add to the tomatoes. To serve, top a bowl of pasta with the tomato-eggplant mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Garnish with extra fresh basil, if you like.

It's morel season - MOREL & TOMATO PASTA

Aren't they lovely! They were picked up at Jan Lake, Saskatchewan, and shipped to me on the STC bus. I kept what I needed and resold the rest to my friends (at $10 a pound).

Morel and Tomato Pasta
First, I made a rue: Melt 1 tbsp butter in a pot on low. When melted, quickly stir in 1/4 cup flour. Stir until all the liquid is absorbed by the butter. Add 1 cup milk and whisk vigorously until the flour/butter mixture dissolves in the liquid, with no lumps. (You really do need a whisk; a spoon won't do it.)

Keep warm on a low burner, stirring now and then to prevent sticking. It will thicken. Add more milk, whisking well to incorporate. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more milk until you have a desired consistency. Season with salt.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain the pasta.

Melt 1 tbsp butted in the pasta pot. Add a handful of chopped morels. Saute until soft. Add two tomatoes, chopped. Cook until they get soft and juicy. Stir in 1/2 tsp dried thyme. When the mushrooms and tomatoes are gently cooked, stir the mixture into the rou. Heat through. Taste and add more salt if needed.

Place the cooked pasta back into the pot and heat, stirring now and then, until the pasta is hot again. Scoop noodles into a bowl and top with morel sauce. Like many pasta sauces, this one is even better the next day!

Newspaper - PASTA PRIMAVERA WITH FIDDLHEADS AND ASPARAGUS

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on 15 June, 2009

I love “free” food. By free, I don’t mean no money down. I am referring to food that grows locally, year after year, with no help from human hands. Last month, I wrote about rhubarb, that favourite perennial vegetable that grows so prolifically on the prairies. Rhubarb is a “free” food because it comes back every year with no fuss and bother. Once it’s in the ground, it’s unstoppable.
This month, I’d like to pay homage to two other “free” vegetables that come up from one year to the next with no human intervention—asparagus and fiddleheads. In my garden, rhubarb really is free, but asparagus and fiddleheads are two “free” foods for which I am willing to pay, not having a source of my own.

Fiddleheads are the small tight curls of wild baby ferns before they unfurl in the spring. The name, I am told, refers to the decorative scroll at the end of a fiddle, which it resembles. Two weeks ago, I received a shipment of fiddleheads on the bus at $8 a pound. Not exactly free to me, but free for the picking to anyone inclined to go out in nature and get them. In this case, it was the folks at White Fox Gold, from an area north of Nipawin.

Given the distance, it is considerably cheaper for me to buy these “free” fiddleheads than to go out and pick them myself.

When I arrived at the bus station to pick up my fiddleheads, I discovered a dozen boxes on their way to various restaurants in Saskatoon, so it’s apparent that many local folks have been able to enjoy this “free” spring vegetable, too. Another favourite “free” spring food is asparagus. Once you plant asparagus, and get the bed going, there’s not much left to do but reap the harvest year after year. I don’t have my own asparagus patch, so I buy it at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. I saw fiddleheads for sale at the market, too.

One of my favourite “free” foods is the wild saskatoon berry. In fact, I love just about any “free” fruit. Last year, my friend Marlene knocked on a stranger’s door and asked if she could pick his plums, which she could see hanging thick in his back yard. He graciously invited her, and therefore me, to help ourselves. Later in the summer, I may go out and pick wild morel and chanterelle mushrooms. Or, I may opt to buy them. Whether I decide to pay for the gas, or pay for the mushrooms, I am excited about the prospect of procuring these “free” summer foods. I’m a big proponent of eating locally, which for me, includes the “free” food that Mother Nature so generously offers. All the better when it really is free.

Incidentally, the historic Marr Residence in Saskatoon holds a Rhubarb Festival on the long weekend of August (Sun. & Mon.), so we can all pay homage to this hardy “free” food planted by the pioneers. You’ll find more Saskatchewan summer food festivals listed here.

This pasta recipe is made with fresh vegetables as they become available in season (primavera is Italian for first green), also made with asparagus, peas, zucchini, red pepper, eggplant, broccoli, etc. In this version, I precooked the fiddleheads because it is recommended to neutralize the bitterness and mild toxins in raw fiddleheads.

Pasta Primavera
12 fiddleheads
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
12 asparagus, chopped
2 medium carrots, shaved with a vegetable peeler
2 large ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste
500g bowtie pasta

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add the fiddleheads and cook five minutes. Drain.
Melt butter with 1/4 cup olive oil on medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Sauté, stirring, until soft. Add the fiddleheads, asparagus and carrots (or other vegetables of the season). Cook until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.

Season vegetables with salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked pasta along with the tomatoes, herbs, pasta water and 1/4 cup olive oil. Toss and heat until tomatoes are soft. Serve hot straight from the pot.

Asian flavours - VIETNAMESE SALAD

Other than the dipping sauce, this dish can be made entirely with Saskatchewan-based ingredients. (Adapted from Cooking Light)

Vietnamese Salad
1/2 of a 450-gram box angel hair pasta
Dipping sauce (see below)
1/2 cup carrots, cut in thin matchsticks
1/2 cup cucumber, seeds removed, cut in thin matchsticks
1/2 cup cabbage, thinly sliced (optional)
1 pound pork or beef, or a combination
1/4 cup green onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
2 handfuls of lettuce
Fresh cilantro and mint for garnish, chopped

Cook pasta in salted water. Drain, rinse and cool. Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce (see below).

Boil two cups of water with a dash of salt. Cooking each separately, boil the carrots, cucumber and cabbage just until they start to soften. Remove with a slotted spoon and rinse in cold water. Add vegetables to the bowl of dipping sauce.

Mix together the ground meat, green onion, cilantro, sugar and fish sauce. Add a dash of salt and pepper. Form into ten patties. Cook patties on a grill or skillet until nicely browned and cooked through. Add the warm patties to the dipping sauce and vegetables.

To serve, place the noodles on a platter. Circle with lettuce. Scoop vegetables and meat patties on top. Pour on dipping sauce. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and mint.

Dipping Sauce – Mix together:
1 large garlic, minced
1 hot pepper, chopped
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup red-wine vinegar

A folly of ravioli

My husband is the king of homemade ravioli. I make the pasta dough and the filling, and he unites them in perfect pockets of flavour. Tonight, I made two fillings: roasted pumpkin and parmesan cheese (with a bit of nutmeg) and pork with Swiss chard (flavoured with dried sage and thyme). We ate them with an easy sauce of butter, olive oil and dried chanterelle mushrooms (rehydrated, of course). Since everything but the oil, cheese and nutmeg is from Saskatchewan, it was Little Italy on the prairies tonight!

(In case you're interested, my recipe for pasta dough is three eggs to two cups of flour, plus a little extra flour to create supple but not sticky dough.)

CBC Calling - PASTA NORMA

PASTA NORMA
Rumor has it that this Sicilian dish was named for the opera Norma, first performed in 1831, which tells the story of a tragic love affair between a Roman official and a Druid high priestess.
canola or olive oil
3 small eggplants
2 cloves garlic
6-8 plum tomatoes
12 basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
salt and pepper
ricotta cheese (make your own - see the entry on 16 April 2005)
pasta (traditonally made with fettucini)

Slice the eggplant, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. This removes moisture so it won't spit so much in the hot oil. Meanwhile, sauté the garlic in 1/4 cup oil. Stir in chopped tomatoes, chopped basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 15 minutes.
Heat oil in skillet and brown the eggplant on both sides. Drain on paper towel. (Or, brush rounds with oil and broil both sides in oven.) If large, cut eggplant into bite-sized pieces. Cook the pasta. Toss the cooked pasta with the tomato sauce. To serve, put pasta on plate, top with fried eggplant and sprinkle with ricotta cheese.

Newsaper - PASTA NORMA

This article appeared in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on 18 Sept. 2006.

Summer’s bounty lingers in the luscious eggplant
The other night at dinner my husband put down his fork and declared the words every home cook would treasure: "This is as good as candy." And we weren’t even eating dessert! It was Pasta Norma, a dish from Sicily which (so the story goes) was named for the opera Norma when it debuted in 1831. The opera tells the story of a tragic love affair between a Roman official and a Druid high priestess. This does not seem to have any direct relation to the main ingredient in Pasta Norma – eggplant – except perhaps to say that it’s wickedly good.

Eggplant is not that common in Saskatchewan gardens, but it’s one of those exotic Mediterranean vegetables that will grow here with proper pampering. A couple of years ago, I found some eggplant seedlings in a local greenhouse and put them in my garden. I got lots of cute little purple eggplants, which spurred me to find new ways to cook them.

Fresh off that success, I planted some more seedlings last year but they didn’t do so well. I got just two eggplants which, if divided by the price of the seedlings, cost me $5 each. It is much less expensive and more reliable to buy them at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. Freshly picked eggplants are available there in late summer and early fall, making this the perfect time to try some classic eggplant recipes from around the world.

The dish that immediately comes mind is the French vegetable stew called ‘ratatouille’, a mix of eggplant, tomatoes, red peppers and fresh basil that’s easy to make and delicious either hot or cold. The next classic recipe I tried was Eggplant Parmigiana, an Italian dish of fried eggplant baked with a tomato-basil sauce and lots of Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. It is absolutely yummy. Middle Eastern cooks make a dip for flatbread and vegetables with eggplant and tahini called ‘baba ghanoush’ and it’s the main ingredient in the Greek baked dish ‘moussaka’.

Not only do I have eggplant in my kitchen, I also have it on my walls. One year for my birthday my husband gave me a still-life painting of an eggplant and a squash. Not long after, I invited my friend Tomasia for dinner. I suppose she hadn’t examined my walls until she was sitting at the table, when she looked up and demanded, "Why on earth do you have a picture of an eggplant on your wall?" In the 17th Century, still-life paintings of food were wildly popular in northern Europe, in part because they reminded people of their growing prosperity and the distances their ships would travel in search of exotic goods.

My eggplant painting reminds me of summer and my search for new and wonderful foods produced in Saskatchewan. I’m an enthusiastic supporter of local food, so it’s always exciting to discover a new gem to include in an all-Saskatchewan diet. Eggplant is often paired with tomatoes, as it is in Pasta Norma.

PASTA NORMA
olive oil
3 small eggplants
2 cloves garlic
8-10 plum tomatoes
a handful of fresh basil
salt and pepper
ricotta cheese
cooked pasta for four

Heat olive oil in a skillet until hot. Use enough oil to thickly coat the bottom of the pan. Slice the eggplant in rounds and then cut the rounds into quarters. Fry the eggplant in hot oil until soft and brown. It will soak up much of the oil so you may need to add more.

Meanwhile, sauté garlic in 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir in chopped tomatoes, chopped basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes or more, pressing the tomatoes to create a sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, place pasta in individual bowls, scoop on some tomato sauce, top with eggplant and sprinkle with ricotta cheese. This dish is at its absolute best when the eggplant and tomatoes are young and fresh, so hike on down to the farmers’ market and do it right!

Newspaper - PASTA PRIMAVERA

This article appeared in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on 19 June 2006.

The other day, my husband pointed out that neither of us had a cold last winter. This is quite unusual. He usually gets a doozie of a cold once a year and I might lose a couple days of productive work. As well, I usually suffer a real about of depression come March when it seems that winter will never end. But this year I didn’t feel one iota of blue.

Why not? We didn’t get flu shots. We didn’t take happy pills with our morning oatmeal. So, what changed? In think it was our Saskatchewan diet. For more than a year, we have been making a concerted effort to eat almost exclusively the foods of Saskatchewan at our own dinner table. Could these local foods be better for our health?

Let’s consider vitamin C. Vitamin C reaches maximum levels in fruits and vegetables that ripen on the vine. Over the past winter, we primarily ate Saskatchewan-ripened fruits and vegetables including apples, cherries, saskatoon berries, strawberries, pears, tomatoes and red peppers, maximizing our vitamin C. As well, vitamin and mineral content is highest in foods that are freshly picked, since nutrients diminish with time and processing. We ate Saskatchewan fruits and vegetables when they were in season or quickly froze them for winter freshness.

Studies show that many fresh vegetables from the grocery store have fewer nutrients than they did in the 1960s. This is because commercial varieties have been bred for their uniformity and storability at the expense of nutrients and taste. Local fruit and vegetable growers are more likely to choose plant varieties for their goodness rather than for their ability to look pretty after travelling 2,000 km in the back of a truck.

Many vitamins and minerals boost the immune system so it can fight off germs. These include: vitamin E, abundant in whole grains and canola oil; zinc in meat, eggs and beans; carotenoids in carrots and spinach; and selenium in mushrooms (just to give a few examples).

Omega 3 fatty acids are terrific for fighting depression and disease. They are found in flax, nuts and leafy green plants. Fish that eat seaweed and algae are a good source of omega 3 fatty acids. So are wild game, bison and cattle raised on diets of grass, not grain. At our house, we eat almost exclusively pasture-raised or wild meat from Saskatchewan including chickens, beef, bison, moose and fish. We buy eggs from a farmer who lets his chickens peck in the grass. These eggs have way more omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin A than eggs laid by hens kept inside a barn. That vitamin A also helps to fight a cold.

The B vitamins are good for mental health and are found abundantly in the whole grains Saskatchewan is so famous for. Also good for depression are the magnesium in cabbage and folate in lentils. Perhaps all that coleslaw and barley soup we ate this winter were good for my body and my spirit. All this talk about colds has left little room to mention the long-term anti-cancer benefits of saskatoon berries and sour cherries, the healing properties of honey and yogurt, and the cholesterol-lowering advantages of oatmeal. All in all, our Saskatchewan diet didn’t just taste good, it was good for us, too.

Take advantage of the freshest disease-fighting vegetables with this terrific and easy pasta dish. The word ‘primavera’ means ‘first green’ and we can never eat enough of that!

PASTA PRIMAVERA
Melt 2 tbsp. and 1/2 cup of olive oil in a pot. Sauté a chopped onion and some chopped garlic. Then toss in a whole bunch of vegetables in bite-sized pieces. For example, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, spinach, snap peas, carrots, sweet peppers and fiddleheads. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the pasta (I prefer bowties or rotini with this dish). When the vegetables are cooked but still crunchy, toss in the drained pasta along with several chopped tomatoes and a couple tbsp. of chopped fresh herbs like parsley, basil and cilantro. Add more oil if necessary so the pasta is nicely moist, adjust the salt and cook until the tomatoes are warm.

Newspaper - SWISS CHARD PASTA FILLING

This article appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on 26 April 2006.

I am just coming off a very successful diet. I didn’t lose weight, but then, I didn’t set out to. But it’s been good for my health, good for the economy and good for the planet. Oh, and it tastes good, too. For the past year, my husband and I have been eating an all-Saskatchewan diet. From asparagus to zucchini, and the jelly in between, just about everything on our dinner table is a product of Saskatchewan.

Why, you ask? It seemed like a fitting project for Saskatchewan’s centennial year. But there were loftier motivations, too. I wanted to eat healthier, support the local food industry and reduce the environmental impact of my eating habits. Most of the foods we eat travel more than 1,000 kilometres from the field to the fork. To some, that may seem like a marvel of modern transportation, but to me it seems like an absurd waste of energy and fossil fuels.

If Saskatchewan prides itself on producing food for the world, why aren’t we eating more of it right here at home? I decided to put my money where my mouth is and eat locally. My Saskatchewan culinary adventure began last April, just as the tender chives were poking through the garden...

Spring fever
All winter, I planned this experiment in local food consumption. I decided to begin the first day I ate something fresh from my garden in Saskatoon. It was the chives. The date was April 16. I chopped the chives and sprinkled them on a hot German potato salad, served with sausages from the farmers’ market and my mom’s pickles. It was the first of hundreds of all-Saskatchewan meals to come.

I sat down and made a list of Saskatchewan foods in two columns, those I already purchased and those I would seek out. The first column included things like eggs, chicken, beef, tomatoes, apples and asparagus. The second list included things like cheese, lentils, cherries, rolled oats and mushrooms. Needless to say, it is hard to find "Made in Saskatchewan" in the local grocery store, so I had to find alternative sources.

One day in spring, the mailman left a parcel card in my mailbox. I went to pick it up at the postal kiosk at the neighbourhood drug store. "I hope you drove here," said the postal clerk, "because it’s heavy." She heaved the box from the back room onto the counter. "Books?" she asked. "No," I said. "Lentils."

It was, in fact, 15 kilograms of organic lentils and split peas from the Cerridwen Farm at Medstead. Over the past year, I have bought food in unusual places from flea markets to gas stations and even from the trunk of a car. Very quickly, I had to adapt my food habits. Instead of planning a meal and dashing out buy to the ingredients, I had to consider the available ingredients and plan a meal around it. I shopped at farmers’ markets, bought direct from farmers and read labels carefully in the grocery store. I went to the Saskatchewan Made Marketplace, which sells only local goods. I kept a garden and swapped produce with family and friends.
It’s a little more time consuming than a visit to the grocery store, but it’s a lot more fun!

For me, a sure sign of spring is the day in March when the Grandora Greenhouse lettuce and cucumbers arrive at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. So, with lentil soup and fresh salads, we got our Saskatchewan diet off to a very good start...

Summer passions
Our Saskatchewan diet moved outdoors. Hamburgers, grilled vegetables, pizza on the BBQ, green salads dotted with edible flowers. The official summer drink on our patio was the Mint Julep, an icy sipping cocktail made with lots of fresh mint. In July, I issued a challenge to my bookclub. We usually have a potluck when we get together. Since we were reading a book set in the south of France, I decided the theme of the potluck would be Mediterranean foods made with Saskatchewan ingredients.

"Help! What on earth do you mean?" came a quick email reply from Susan. Well, think of the foods we associate with the Mediterranean. Pasta, pesto and pizza from Italy. Greek salad and spanikopita. Middle eastern pita bread, falafel and tabouleh salad. Fish and eggplant on the French Riviera. Lamb and honey in Morocco. The principle ingredients of all of these dishes are produced right here in Saskatchewan.

The potluck was wonderful, proving that an all-Saskatchewan meal doesn’t have to be meat and potatoes and rhubarb pie. Foods produced in Saskatchewan lend themselves to a range of world cuisines from Mexican tortillas to Chinese stir-fries.

I keep a small garden in Saskatoon which is usually designed with dinner in mind. It’s full of good things to eat within minutes of picking. But this year was different. I had to plan ahead.
So, I planted more beets and spinach and squash. I froze peas and corn. I grew lots of basil for pesto and dried the rest. I stewed rhubarb and made apple sauce. I even pickled asparagus from the farmers’ market.

In July, I picked saskatoon berries at Manitou Beach. In August, I picked mushrooms at La Ronge and cherries at the Yoanna Orchard near Radisson. In September, I picked pears from a tree on Temperance Street. Whatever we didn’t eat immediately was put away for winter months. As summer waned, my panic waxed. Could our Saskatchewan diet survive a long Saskatchewan winter? Or would we emerge pale and hungry with the spring thaw...

Fall comforts
To celebrate Saskatchewan’s centennial in September, I decided to recreate the dinner served to dignitaries the day the province was created. I obtained the menu from the Saskatchewan Archives Board in Regina. Although there were several courses, the menu was quite generic. Cream soup, spring chicken and tomato salad could be prepared any number of ways. So, I consulted a cookbook that was popular in 1905, the Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cook Book first published in 1896. Then I invited two great friends, Heather and Murray, for dinner. Here’s the menu:

Imperial Cream Soup, chicken with spring onions, lamb in parchment paper, tomato salad with horseradish sauce, steamed asparagus, Potato Bells, sponge cake with champagne sauce and fresh strawberries.

By now our friends were all aware of our Saskatchewan diet. Whether from pity or concern, they began offering us gifts of Saskatchewan food. One day, there was a knock at the door. It was our friend Jeff, an avid hunter, with a box of frozen moose, cut and wrapped. "How do you cook moose?" I asked. "Like beef," he advised.

So, I delved into a food magazine and found a recipe for Portuguese beef stew. Substitute moose and it was delicious. I began stocking food like a crazy chipmunk who puts away enough for three winters. Before long, my freezer was full. Another friend to the rescue–offering space in his freezer and a key for quick access. And so, as the snow began to fly, we were comforted with baked beans, hearty soups and slow-cooked stews...

Winter greens (and reds)
Winter brings with it several special meals, and I aimed to prove that Saskatchewan foods could rise to the occasion. For Christmas dinner, we had squash and pear soup, baked ham, baked beans, coleslaw and a cherry tart. For New Year’s, the menu was grilled pork chops, mushroom barley risotto, red pepper salad and for dessert, a saskatoon pie. For Valentine’s Day I prepared a "red" meal including BBQ steaks, beet salad and a pink cake with cherry sauce.

I must admit, by February I was craving some fresh greens. I love coleslaw, but enough is enough! If I wanted fresh Saskatchewan greens in the middle of winter I was going to have to grow my own! So, I placed an order with Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds of Parkside. Seeds don’t need much space (just a jar in a window) and you’ve got vitamin-rich greens in just a few days.

Traditionally in prairie culture, winter was not the lean season. It was early spring, when the winter stocks had run out but the new growing season had not yet begun. As winter gives way to spring, we are using up the frozen tomatoes and opening the last jar of canned pears. I’m already out of dried oregano and pinto beans. Tonight, we’re roasting the last of the free-range chickens.
We did not starve–not in quantity or quality–on our Saskatchewan diet. The year is up, but I suspect we won’t celebrate the end of this diet because it’s become a habit for life.

For Saskatchewan menus, recipes and food sources please go to homefordinner.blogspot.com.


SWISS CHARD PASTA FILLING
I make this stuffing in the summer when Swiss chard is abundant and freeze it for winter pasta making. We usually make a large batch of ravioli and freeze what we don’t eat right away. I make the dough and my husband rolls it. (We have a Pasta Queen pasta roller and a ravioli press, which make the task quite easy.) To make the dough, I blend 2 cups of flour with 3 beaten farm eggs and a spot of water. After mixing with a fork, I work it into a ball with my hands, wrap it in a plastic bag, and leave it in the fridge at least an hour before rolling it.

If you don’t have a pasta maker or a ravioli press, you can use this stuffing inside purchased cannelloni. It can also be made with spinach. So, if you don’t have any fresh or frozen Swiss chard, feel free to substitute fresh or frozen. For the tomato-basil sauce, see the recipe in the August 2005 archives. To make your own ricotta cheese, see the recipe in the April 2005 archives.

1 pound Swiss chard, parboiled and squeezed dry. (or thawed and squeezed)
1cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 large egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp each fresh thyme and fresh rosemary (or half as much dried herbs)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together well and stuff something!

Week 43 & 44 - SWISS CHARD RAVIOLI

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week – 17 February 2006

Breakfast – Pancakes with preserved fruit.
Lunch – Grilled cheese sandwich.
Dinner – Swiss chard ravioli. Tomato basil sauce. Sponge cake with cherry sauce.

SWISS CHARD RAVIOLI
I make this stuffing in the summer when Swiss chard is abundant and freeze it for winter pasta making. We usually make a large batch of ravioli and freeze what we don’t eat right away. I make the dough and my husband rolls it. (We have a Pasta Queen pasta roller and a ravioli press, which make the task quite easy.) To make the dough, I blend 2 cups of flour with 3 beaten farm eggs and a spot of water. After mixing with a fork, I work it into a ball with my hands, wrap it in a plastic bag, and leave it in the fridge at least an hour before rolling it.

If you don’t have a pasta maker or a ravioli press, you can use this stuffing inside purchased cannelloni. It can also be made with spinach. For the tomato-basil sauce, see the recipe in the August 2005 archives. To make your own ricotta cheese, see the technique in the April 2005 archives.

1 pound Swiss chard, parboiled and squeezed dry. (or thawed and squeezed)
1cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 large egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp each fresh thyme and fresh rosemary (or half as much dried herbs)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together well and stuff something!

Week 34 - RED PEPPER PESTO

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week -- 5 December 2005

Breakfast – Toast with honey.
Lunch – Cheese and sprout sandwich.
Dinner – Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto.

RED PEPPER PESTO
Traditionally, we think of pesto made with basil and pine nuts. But technically, a pesto is any smooth blend usually made with garlic, olive oil and cheese. This is delicious and freezes well. I buy local hothouse red peppers in summer and freeze a few batches for the winter months.

several cloves of roasted garlic (see note below)
2 red peppers, roasted and peeled (see note below)
3-4T oil
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1T blue cheese
fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Mix everything in a blender until smooth. Taste and adjust the flavour ingredients to your taste.

Note: To roast garlic, cut a slice off the top of a whole bulb of garlic, smother the cut surface with olive oil, wrap in tinfoil and bake in hot oven until soft, about 30 minutes. Roasted garlic is nuttier and smoother than raw garlic. It keeps well wrapped in tinfoil and goes nicely in a pasta sauce, omelet or wherever you would put garlic. To prepare the red peppers, broil in the oven, turning to blacken every surface. (Be careful to char just the skin and not the flesh.) Put hot peppers in a paper bag until cool enough to handle. Peel the charred skin off the flesh and discard along with the seeds.

Week 26 - EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA

Saskatchcewan Menu of the Week -- 8 October 2005

Breakfast – Yogurt with fresh pear.
Lunch – Egg salad sandwich.
Dinner – Eggplant Parmigiana.

MELANZANA alla PARMIGIANA
(Eggplant Parmigiana adapted from Saveur magazine)

This Italian classic takes some time to make, but it’s well worth the effort. I usually grow eggplant in my garden, but this year they were a complete bust. I bought these at the Farmers' Market.

Take two medium eggplants (or lots of little ones of that’s what you find at the farmers’ market) and slice about 1/4 inch thick. Deep-fry the slices of eggplant in hot canola oil until they are browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, make a tomato sauce: sauté 2 chopped cloves of garlic in 3T of olive oil. Add 10-or-so chopped Roma tomatoes (or one can of tomatoes with juice) and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a good boil over medium high heat, then turn down the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. Add 1T dried basil near the end of cooking.

Assembly: In a 10-inch baking dish, spread half the tomato sauce. Cover with half the eggplant slices. Scatter in 1/2 cup of grated mozzarella cheese. Repeat with the rest of the tomato sauce, eggplant and another 1/2 cup of mozzarella. Top with some fresh basil leaves (if you have them) and 1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until the top is bubbly and golden.

Week 22 - PASTA NORMA

Menu of the Week -- 14 September, 2005

B’fast – Bread with gooseberry jelly.
Lunch – Leftover chicken drumstick.
Dinner – Pasta Norma.

PASTA NORMA
Rumor has it that this Sicilian dish was named for the opera Norma, first performed in 1831, which tells the story of a tragic love affair between a Roman official and a Druid priestess. So, what's the connection with eggplant? A lot of recipes tell you to salt the eggplant to remove its bitterness, but that is not necessary when the eggplant is small and fresh.

olive oil
3 small eggplants
2 cloves garlic
6-8 plum tomatoes
12 basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
salt and pepper
ricotta cheese (SEE HOMEMADE METHOD 16 April 2005)
long pasta (traditionally it’s made with fettucini)

Slice the eggplant in rounds and fry in hot oil until soft and brown. Drain on paper towel. (Or, brush rounds with oil and broil both sides in oven.)

Sauté garlic in 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir in chopped tomatoes, chopped basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. In the meantime, cook the pasta. To serve, toss the cooked pasta with the tomato sauce, top with slices of eggplant and sprinkle with ricotta cheese (parmesan will do fine, too).

Week 20 - PASTA PRIMAVERA

Menu of the Week -- 29 August 2005

Breakfast – Yogurt with cherries.
Lunch – Corn on the cob.
Dinner – Pasta Primavera. Deep fried zucchini flowers

PASTA PRIMAVERA
This recipe is adapted from Lorenza’s Pasta, by Lorenza de’Medici. You can easily substitute other vegetables, and use more or less of each as they are available. According to Lorenza, this pasta dish is not served with cheese.

2T butter
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1/2 chopped onion
1 chopped clove of garlic
1 medium zucchini, sliced (or two small)
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 cup chopped snap peas (or shelled peas)
2-3 large ripe tomatoes
1T each parsley and/or basil
salt and pepper
Cooked pasta for four people (I prefer this with shaped pasta such as bowties or rigatoni, as opposed to long noodles like spaghetti.)

Melt the butter and half the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently so it doesn’t brown. Add the zucchini, carrots and peas. Cook until the carrots are no longer hard to the bite. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cooked pasta along with the tomatoes, herbs and the rest of the oil. Toss it together and cook briefly until the tomatoes are softened. Serve hot.

Newspaper - August - PASTA WITH CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS

This was first published in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on August 22, 2005.

One of the mysteries of my childhood was the mushroom. Primarily, mushrooms came in a can and I was not too fond of their rubbery gray texture. But every now and then, my dad would come into the kitchen with a handful of fresh brown mushrooms he had just picked in the farmyard. They smelled so wonderful cooked in butter, and he took great pleasure in eating them.

I did not enjoy them due to the simple fact that my mother forbade it. While she was reluctantly resigned to losing her husband to a poisonous mushroom, she was certainly not going to expose her children to a similar fate. I never learned where they grew or how to identify them. As far as I knew, every wild mushroom was a potential killer and best left underfoot.

As an adult, I had been quite happy to buy mushrooms in the grocery store – until now. Since April, I have been supplying my diet almost exclusively with foods produced in Saskatchewan. If I wanted to eat mushrooms, I would have to find a local source.

Fortunately, Saskatchewan’s forests are teaming with edible mushrooms. Some are among the most prized mushrooms in the world, where they sell for top dollar in foreign grocery stores. Unfortunately, they rarely make an appearance in our own groceries. Why? Perhaps because we are unaccustomed to cooking with a wrinkled morel or an orangey chanterelle. Perhaps there’s more money in selling a pine mushroom in Japan for $100 a pound.

Since I am a) thrifty, b) willing to try something new and c) a pretty good picker, I decided to go into the forest and collect the mushrooms myself. I needed a guide so I called Gerry Ivanochko, the mushroom specialist at Saskatchewan Agriculture in La Ronge. Gerry is studying the potential for selling wild Saskatchewan mushrooms to the world – Is it more profitable to cut the pine trees for things like fence posts, or leave the trees and harvest the mushrooms that grow underneath?

Armed with some buckets and a knife, Gerry led me and my friend David, also an avid picker, into the Jack Pine forest where the ground is covered with soft reindeer moss and dotted with mushrooms of various kinds.

"None of these mushrooms will kill you," Gerry assured us. "But some of them might make you sick."

Before long I was on my hands and knees cutting a young chanterelle out of the moss. The chanterelle mushroom is prized in European cooking for its lovely apricot colour and great taste. We also collected pine mushrooms, which are harder to spot on the forest floor. In Japan and Korea, they are considered a great delicacy imparting manly vigor, longevity and good health.

In spring, especially a year or two after a forest fire, morel mushrooms are picked in abundance. Gerry says the wild mushroom business brings about $1 million into Saskatchewan every year, but there’s potential for at least five times that.

Along a gravel road through the forest, a buyer has set up a tent to purchase the mushrooms directly from pickers. According to our guide, some of these mushrooms will be on dinner tables half way around the world in just a few days. It took a lot less time to reach my dinner table! This pasta recipe is good with any edible mushroom, but of course, I like it best with chanterelles I just picked myself.

You might check the stores for dried Saskatchewan morels, which are being packaged and sold by Northern Lights Foods of La Ronge. For more mushroom recipes, check my food website at homefordinner.blogspot.com.

PASTA WITH CHANTERLLE MUSHROOMS
Melt 1T of butter in a saucepan and sauté 2 chopped shallots until soft. Add 1 pound of sliced mushrooms and cook until the liquid evaporates. Add 1T lemon juice and 2T port (or other sweet wine). Bubble a few minutes and add 1 cup of cream. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the cream thickens, about 10 minutes. Serve warm over fettucini or other cooked pasta.

Week 14 - STRAW & HAY FETTUCCINI

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week -- 20 July 2005

Breakfast – Yogurt and raspberries.
Lunch – Chicken salad sandwich.
Dinner – Straw and Hay fettucini. Green salad.

STRAW AND HAY FETTUCCINI
This Italian dish is made with two colours of fettuccini – regular and spinach – which resembles the contrasting colours of straw and hay. It is traditionally made with peas in a cream sauce. Since peas are now abundant in the garden, it’s a good time to make this dish for dinner. We make our own pasta with farm eggs ,which gives it a nice straw colour.

Heat a bit of butter and oil in a saucepan and sauté 1/4 cup of chopped onion and one chopped clove of garlic. Add 1/4 cup of cooked diced ham. Stir for a few minutes, until the onion is soft. Add 1 cup of cream and cook until the cream thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add 1 cup of raw green peas. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Cook until the peas are soft. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Toss it into the sauce, and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Week 13 - THREE PEPPER PASTA

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week -- 14 July 2005

Breakfast – Fresh raspberries.
Lunch – Leftover pizza.
Dinner – Salad greens with caramelized onion rings. Three-pepper pasta with ground moose and pork. Mint sorbet.

THREE PEPPER PASTA
I am fortunate to be able to buy Saskatchewan peppers at the farmers' market. They are grown in the greenhouse at Grandora Gardens just east of Saskatoon, owned by Pat and Fred Gittings. This recipe is adapted from Saveur magazine, Aug./Sept. 2004.

2 red peppers, 2 yellow pepper and 2 green peppers
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cloves of garlic peeled
4 ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
1 finely chopped onion
1/2 pound ground meat (I used moose and pork; the recipe calls for veal)
Butter, oil, salt, pepper
Pasta, preferably fettuccine

Cut peppers in half, remove the seeds and pith, and peel skin with a vegetable peeler. Cut in fat strips. Heat oil in pan. Sauté garlic until golden and discard. Add the peppers and a pinch of salt. Turn down heat and cook until soft, about 45 minutes, turning now and then.

Meanwhile, heat butter and oil (2T each) in another skillet. Cook the onion until golden. Add the meat, salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat, turning occasionally, until the meat is no longer pink. Add tomatoes and their juice. Simmer 20 minutes.

When peppers are done, mix them into the meat. Cook a few more minutes to incorporate the flavours. Pour over hot cooked pasta in a warm serving bowl. Toss and serve with parmesan cheese.